The Fulton County District Attorney was the highest-paid municipal employee in the Mohawk Valley during the state’s 2019 fiscal year, according to the latest edition of “What They Make,” the Empire Center’s annual report summarizing total local government pay.

Chad W. Brown, the district attorney for Fulton County, was paid $197,600 during the 12-month period ending March 31, the Empire Center analysis found. The five highest-paid employees in the Mohawk Valley were also county district attorneys.

Other data highlights for local government employees in the Mohawk Valley, which includes Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Montgomery, Oneida and Schoharie counties:

• The City of Utica’s 170 police department employees topped the average pay for police departments in the region, collecting $85,341 on average.
• The highest-paid police department in the Mohawk Valley was the City of Utica’s fire department, where employees made an average of $78,879.
• The top paid fire department in the region was in the City of Little Falls, where fire department employees averaged $50,279.

The names, employers, system and pay of the 10 highest-paid local government employees in the region are listed below:

The amounts listed in the report do not include fringe benefits such as health insurance or pension contributions, which can add more than 35 percent to the cost for taxpayers.

Click here to read the full report.

The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.